Reason for contacting Clear
We were asked by an existing housing association client to assist with undertaking monthly and pre-handover fire inspections and pre-occupation fire risk assessments to provide fire safety quality assurance for their new build projects. This need had arisen from a sudden resignation of the person undertaking this work.
Problems/issues identified by Clear
Clear was instantly involved in providing site inspection and reports for approximately 19 new build projects of various sizes and at different stages of construction.
As this was something introduced relatively recently by our client, following a fire at one of their construction sites, this was something very much planned and executed by one person, who had almost complete autonomy over how they worked.
Also, there was limited information and reports for some sites. The reports and information that were available were held within numerous files which were both cumbersome to navigate and difficult to extract relevant information from.
Time was against us, and we had to roll out a plan and act extremely quickly to avoid delaying the handover of some building projects, which would ultimately mean delaying new tenants from moving into their flats and houses.
The Clear response
We immediately appointed a person to manage and undertake the inspection regime in the short term. While time was limited, we did manage to glean some information of what the work entailed and the expectations, by meeting the incumbent inspector for an hour before they left their role the following day.
We were sent various process maps and documents and pieced together how best to tackle this project. A number of meetings ensued during this time with various development heads and a short and medium-term plan evolved.
We believed one of the main issues to resolve was the collation of the various documents and reports for each site, as a point of reference for all stakeholders and a coherent, standardised report. Within a week we had developed a tailor-made report template for the different types of inspection we were being asked to produce. We created a new report management area specific to the project, from our cloud-based system, which housed all reports, certifications, photographs, assessments and other relevant documents.
While this greatly assisted our work, it also left a data trail to assist or enhance the collation of information for the Golden Thread.
The end result
We are currently managing and undertaking various reports for our client’s entire new build projects.
We have employed a full-time inspector with the relevant knowledge and experience to look after this project.
We are currently being called off from the CHIC framework with our client requesting a 3-year contract term.
We have been asked to create an inspection regime for our client’s remediation project, currently for works of 60 medium and high-rise blocks.
